1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a digital camera, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for photographing an image in a digital camera mounted in a mobile communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
The latest portable mobile devices have a variety of functions integrated therein, and a digital camera is one of the typical examples. The conventional camera is limited in its use, as it is an analog camera that records an image of a subject on a film. Recently, however, due to the development of semiconductor technology, it is possible to apply miniaturized camera modules for converting an image of a subject into electric data to a variety of small products using image sensors manufactured by the semiconductor process. Accordingly, a digital camera may be mounted in a portable mobile device as a small module.
The integration of a camera and a mobile phone or other mobile communication devices has increased utilization of the camera. A camera mounted in a mobile phone may transmit photographed images to other users through mobile communication using Mobile Messaging Service (MMS), or transmit and output captured images to different output devices through short-range communication such as Bluetooth or Infrared communication, and may be widely used in, for example, immediately uploading photographed images to the Internet through a communication network to share them with others.
A small digital camera mounted in a mobile terminal generally uses a power supply of the mobile terminal, without having its independent power supply. Small devices, such as a mobile communication terminal and a portable mobile device, essentially require a method for minimizing power consumption required in order to increase their utilization.
Accordingly, the small digital camera mounted in a mobile terminal also requires a photographing scheme different from the conventional one, which consumes less power compared with the ordinary digital cameras.
Digital cameras, cell phones, camcorders and the like have a preview screen that provides an image of a subject in real time in order to help users previously view an image to be photographed, prior to photographing the subject. Generally, in such a preview mode, an image of a subject should be provided to a display unit in real time using a lens unit and an image sensor, and an operation for setting an automatic focus function or an automatic white balance function is performed in real time, increasing the power consumption.